Missing workspace list from Project menu on Linux

[StephenW]

I have recently started using Slickedit on Linux directly, rather than from my Windows box over the network.  On Windows, Slickedt Pro v21.0.1.0 has a quick list of recently used workspaces on its Project menu, between "Project Properties..." and "All Workspaces".  On Linux, with the same version of Slickedit, that workspace list does not exist.  Not having it is quite aggravating - I have been using it all the time on Windows, and it seems my fingers have been programmed to use it now and when it does not work on Linux, it stops the flow of my work.

I have tried searching the options to see if there was something I had to turn on to make it appear, but I could not find anything.  I even exported the options from both Windows and Linux and compared the exported xml files, but I could not find anything.  So can anyone tell me how to enable it on Linux?

[Graeme]

Try tools -> options -> file options -> history.  Select "project menu" in the top window and see what "history size" is set to.

[StephenW]

No luck - the "History size" was set to 9 on all three of the menus.  The history is working on the File menu, but for some reason it is not on the Project menu.

[Graeme]

Have a look at def_max_workspacehist  - on the macro menu, select "set macro variable".

Have a look at the _menu_add_workspace_hist function in wkspace.e.  You could add some debug code to it to see if it's calling _menu_add_hist.

How many workspaces do you see if you go to project menu -> Organize all workspaces.

[StephenW]

def_max_workspacehist is 9.  Organize all workspaces shows 9 workspaces.  I put a messageNwait() call in _menu_add_workspace_hist and it appears that it is not being called at all as I did not get any messages.

[Dan]

What happens if you run the editor with a clean config (vs -sc <path>) and then open a couple of workspaces.  Do you still not get the list?

[StephenW]

No.  And still no messageNwait messages from _menu_add_workspace_hist either.

[Dan]

Well, running with -sc <path> would start a new (clean) config, so unless you reloaded it, you wouldn't get the messageNwaits.

Let me look around and see what I can find.

I have to ask - you're sure you loaded the module after adding the messageNwait calls? (Macro>Load Module)

[StephenW]

Yes, I loaded the module.  Initially, I had a syntax error, and got a message about it on the command line I started vs from, and I also checked the .ex file to make sure it had a new timestamp.

Since it was a modified macro in the /opt/slickedit-pro2016/macros directory, I do not see why run vs with a new config would have affected the messageNwaits I had added to the wkspace.e file.

[Dan]

Because when you load a module, the loaded version is stored in the state file (vslick.stu) in your config directory (by default on Unix in $HOME/.slickedit/21.0.1/).

When you run with -sc <newpath>, it starts a new local config in <newpath> that starts from the global state file (/opt/slickedit-pro2016/vslick.stu), which never had your changes loaded into it.

So, that's why that didn't work.  Let me look around and see if I can figure out any points where this might have failed.

[Dan]

You put the messageNwait right at the top of _menu_add_windowhist?

I was just playing with this - messageNwait is pretty old, and sometimes it seemed to be waiting, but the messages weren't appearing.  Can you try it again with _message_box() or say()?

say will cause another window (usually titled 'vs') to be launched with the output in there.

[Graeme]

No.  And still no messageNwait messages from _menu_add_workspace_hist either.

Try using the say function instead of messageNwait.  On my system, the _menu_add_workspace_hist function is called only at startup.  If you can't get it working it might not be hard to create a new popup menu with the workspace history.

[StephenW]

I changed my messageNwait() calls in _menu_add_workspace_hist to say(), and I am now getting a popup window with log messages in it, but no sign of any workspace history.  I ran "vs -sc /root/temp/ &", then opened a workspace, then switched to a second workspace.

The documentation for say() says that it sends messages to a log file that should be in /root/temp/21.0.1/logs, but there was no sign of such a log file anywhere, just the popup window with log messages.  So I have attached a screenshot of that.

[Graeme]

My help file says dsay writes to a log file.  say() just writes to the debug window.  Sometimes the debug window can be behind other windows.  You can clear the debug window with ctrl K I think.

You screenshot seems to indicate that _menu_add_hist isn't working for workspace history.  You could try debugging your way through it.

[Dan]

I changed my messageNwait() calls in _menu_add_workspace_hist to say(), and I am now getting a popup window with log messages in it, but no sign of any workspace history.  I ran "vs -sc /root/temp/ &", then opened a workspace, then switched to a second workspace.

The documentation for say() says that it sends messages to a log file that should be in /root/temp/21.0.1/logs, but there was no sign of such a log file anywhere, just the popup window with log messages.  So I have attached a screenshot of that.

It looks like the documentation for say says "Write a string to the SlickEdit debug window."

dsay will write to vs.log.